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The Anti-Depressive Apartment

In designer Jonathan Adler's kaleidoscopic New York digs, it's pretty hard not to feel happy

By

Rachel Dodes

Updated Nov. 5, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

Several months after selling a cache of striped pots to his first retail account in 1993, Jonathan Adler wondered why he never got paid—until, that is, the buyer informed him that he never sent in an invoice.

Mr. Adler's response: "What's an invoice?"

Now founder and creative director of an eponymous home-décor empire, Mr. Adler, 44 years old, refers to himself as an "accidental entrepreneur." His...